April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Some leaders of U.S. labor unions,
who decry the widening differences between the salaries of
corporate chief executive officers and their workers, earn
compensation that also places them in the top 1 percent.

The BGOV Barometer shows the heads of the top 10 U.S. labor
unions took home average salary and other compensation of
$394,925 last year, according to union reports filed with the
U.S. Labor Department. Taxpayers in the top 1 percent had
adjusted gross income higher than $343,927, according to IRS
statistics published in 2011.

Union leaders’ pay is a far cry from the average
compensation of CEOs of S&P 500 companies, which the AFL-CIO
calculated at $12.9 million, a figure President Richard Trumka
described as “astronomical” last week. While Trumka’s own 2011
compensation of $293,750 puts him with the 99 percent, leaders
of several unions under his organization’s umbrella earned much
more, led by Terence O’Sullivan of the Laborers’ International
Union of America, at $589,124.

“It’s tremendously embarrassing for the union officers,”
said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark
University in Worcester, Massachusetts. “It distances them from
the rank and file. How can you represent workers and their
problems when you’re in the 1 percent?”

The AFL-CIO, the country’s largest labor federation, last
week outlined a searchable database of salaries of the chief
executive officers of the largest U.S. companies in an effort to
highlight the disparity, which union leaders say is bad for
economic growth.

Top 1 Percent

“Inequality threatens America’s greatness,” James Hoffa,
the head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters said in
an April 10 statement. “Last year, the top 1 percent of America
took in 23 percent of all income. It’s time everyone starts to
play by the same rules.”

Hoffa, whose union represents 1.38 million workers,
received $372,489 in 2011 in salary and other disbursements for
items such as meals, entertainment and other expenses.

Besides O’Sullivan and Hoffa, union leaders whose pay puts
them in the top 1 percent include Gerald McEntee of the American
Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Randi
Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers, Edwin Hill of
the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Dennis Van
Roekel of the National Education Association and Joseph Hansen
of the United Food and Commercial Workers Association.

“We are totally transparent about what our officers are
paid, and there’s no comparison to CEOs who last year got paid
$13 million on average, often while skimping on pay for their
workers or slashing jobs and sitting on trillions of
dollars in cash,” Alison Omens, an AFL-CIO spokeswoman, said in
an e-mail.

The union leaders’ compensation is also a fraction of the
pay of industry trade association heads. For example, Tom
Donohue, the chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, took home $4.75 million in 2010. Jack Gerard, who
heads the American Petroleum Institute, was paid $6.4 million.

The gap in compensation between union leaders and their
membership is nothing like the 380-1 ratio by which corporate
CEOS out-earn their employees, according to the AFL-CIO.

“I’d argue they are out of touch, said Chaison. “It’s
wrong to compare them to corporate leaders; they should be
compared to the workers themselves.”